Adopting open source software in public administration: The importance of boundary spanners and political commitment

• We study the adoption of open source software by municipalities in the Netherlands.
• We conduct a survey which shows large differences in the degree of adoption of open source software in Dutch municipalities.
• We find that the presence of boundary spanners is crucial for the adoption of open source software in public organizations.
• We find that the presence of political support is important for the adoption of open source software in public organizations.

Open source software (OSS) adoption in public administrations around the world has been uneven. Despite the substantive economic and efficiency-related implications of OSS adoption, there is surprisingly little research into the determinants of the diffusion of OSS across public sector jurisdictions. In this article we explore the variation in OSS adoption among Dutch local administrations. The Dutch central government adopted a policy to stimulate the use of OSS in the public sector, but the non-mandatory character of the policy resulted in great differences in the degree of adoption of OSS at the local level. Using data from a new survey of municipalities in the Netherlands and proportional odds statistical models to analyze the data, we show that the degree of OSS adoption crucially depends on the presence of boundary spanners and political commitment within the local government. On the other hand, oft-suspected factors like financial stress and jurisdiction size have no discernible effects. Our findings have implications for understanding the spread of OSS in the public sector and for public policies designed to encourage OSS diffusion.